I work with a company called C4 Labs. c4labs.net We make all sorts of things, usually with a laser cutter, like Raspberry Pi and Arduino enclosures and sell them online. This year we participated in some holiday shows and made some geeky stuff for people to enjoy!

While we ramp up for the next year and expand our capabilities, we thought it would be great to give back to the community and what better way than with some ornaments!

Anyone with access to a laser cutter can slice up these bad boys and stage a holiday space battle of epic proportions!

If you like these and are interested in some of our other goodies, please check us out at the links below!

PHIL is a proof-of-concept prototype Raspberry Pi enclosure that re-purposes a late-manufacture black and white CRT television and integrates a Raspberry Pi, USB hub and IR receiver to create a cute retro-styled desktop computer/media center!

I say that this is a proof-of-concept because I designed it around obscure components I had on-hand and not easily source-able parts. If anybody has the same parts available, enjoy!

The success of PHIL is fueling the creation of ORSON. plus.google.com/117083821997943931042/posts/K6MxmdwRR4g
ORSON can be put together using easily source-able parts and is going to be the first of many available designs, kits and products available from my company MegaTronic Laboratories.

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This birdhouse features two entrances, upper ventilation through the chimney and windows as well as sloped drains in the base to allow fluid to run out. There are multiple interior platforms built in to the corners so birds can snuggle in places where wind is unable to blow across them. Along with the veranda, there are also three perches for birds to hang out on.

There are two hefty center-aligned screw slots for tree mounting and for extra stability, there are two decorative support trusses so keep it from going anywhere!

This classy casa is designed to print without the use of support material. Even the body prints as a single piece! The base, which includes the porch for the veranda, slides in from the front and comes to a rest with the columns mating with the beam of the roof.

I strongly recommend printing in PLA on a printer with a build platform at least 220 mm long and 150 mm wide. Also there are bridges on this model! My original Replicator can handle them just fine so most printers should. They are around and inch long at their longest.

This can of course be proportionately scaled, however it was designed to best accommodate small birds like finches, blue-jays, chickadees and the like.

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This model is an experiment of mine to develop an easy and powerful creative workflow for taking a 3D scan or other simple model and adding superficial detail to enhance the quality of the 3D print.

I am using Blender 2.67b and its impressively powerful sculpting tools along with the recently introduced "dynamic topology" feature and a Wacom Cintiq pen tablet. I took the STL file straight from the Thingiverse and using the crease tool, carved ridges and pinches in the model to exaggerate some features of the model.

What I have found is even with a high-detail model, the nature of many 3D printing technologies will smooth or obliterate small details and add to the generational degradation of the figure. This effect is worsened significantly if there is to be any hand-finishing performed to the final print.

Sappho's Head has become a nice "showcase" print for many. It is an elegant way to demonstrate the process of 3D scanning a figure, in this case a plaster bust, and 3D print a duplicate at any desired scale.

This scan was brought over to the Thingiverse by LukeChilson from the Artec 3D Scan gallery.

I will upload another test to show the results of different processes. In the meantime, this is a fine test that you all can print to see the quality difference. I have included a .THING file that positions this and the original figure side-by-side for comparison.

In the quest for 3D printed liquid containers, the okay just got okay-er!

While working on a different project, I needed to make a part that fit to a disposable flask's threaded opening. So I designed the neck of the opening and printed it to check the compatibility with the existing cap. It worked great so I was able to design that project and move along. But I was left with a threaded tube with nothing to do!

The PhLAsk is just a simple hip flash with a threaded cap. I printed it in black PLA at 220 micron layer height, three shells and 20% in-fill.

I filled it with water and left it in a dish overnight and it looks like there is no seeping. The cap doesn't seal 100% but it does so well enough to keep water from dripping out with gravity. A little pressure will cause a seep though. A gasket will fix this.

During the fall of last year, I was commissioned to bring to life an idea I had following the arrival of my original MakerBot Replicator.

This idea was to take a totally stock MakerBot Thing-O-Matic (with MK7 Stepstruder and LCD Control Panel), dismantle it and using ONLY the parts from the original machine and new parts printed on a MakerBot Replicator, re-assemble the printer in a new, stylized enclosure.

This is the result.

This project was kept under wraps during development and was delivered to MakerBot HQ in late November. Its home was to be on display at the new MakerBot HQ and now that they have moved most of their operations to the new place, it is there for all to see!

Over the next week I will be uploading all of the parts (there are over 100 right now), then an assembly guide and following that, the source files.

As you can imagine, this took a bit of time. The modeling took a couple weeks assuming 6 hours of work every weekday. The printing took even longer due to prints failing, running out of plastic and the nature of ABS plastic.

As I upload the parts, I will be committing to the design some last-minute manual modifications I had to do to get things to line-up after printing so the new prints should be alright.

Here is a video of the first-run and the z-axis cable arm articulation.

In the end, it was able to print pretty well (at least as well as the Thing-O-Matic it was). It is VERY study. The corners of the box are each one three-sided part and there is a "spine" that holds it all in-line. The mainboard and extruder controller have been moved up front inside the console along with the control panel so the USB, SD Card and reset button are easy to access. The stepper drivers can be accessed from the side-panels and all of the belt tensioners can be adjusted without disassembling anything.

This is my most complex design yet and while I don't think many people will be printing this plastic-hungry beast, I hope some of the parts or design queues could be useful to others, inspire improvements or inspire new things!

I will be adding files in batches over the next week so if you "watch" this thing, you will know when I have updated it. This will forever be flagged as a "work-in-progress" but if at least one person makes a successful copy, I will be very glad.

Thanks for all your follows, likes, collects and watches on this and my other designs. For a designer, this kind of support keeps my fire hot and the plastic flowing!

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

Not only that, it has been designed so that once the loops in the back are secured with a padlock or whatever, it can't come apart (without damage). The back hatch secures the money and access to the coin mechanism's locking pins. The collar around the jar keeps the jar from being removed.

The hole on the top will take a preserving lid ring for a standard "medium" Mason jar. That lets you thread the jar to the top, and the collar will secure it in place. Or you can go totally legit and print the provided jar file. (not .JAR file).

Also, this version is EXTREMELY generous. For a quarter, it will give you about a dollar's worth of M&Ms, Skittles, Mike and/or Ikes, Chiclets or glass marbles.

I don't recommend the marbles.

I'll provide a few different drums to adjust the generosity of the machine soon.

UPDATE: I've uploaded all the STL files. My prototype is still printing so I'll hold off on the source files until a legitimate test.

Stay tuned!

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This is the first revision of a shower head intended to screw on to a standard 1/2" threaded shower pipe.

Pressurized water is a tricky thing to deal with; especially with 3D prints. The nozzles on this are designed to keep turbulence low and under adequate pressure, the taper on the business end of the hole should keep the water stream solid. They are pretty small holes so they will likely close up a bit when printing but when you use a pushpin or paperclip to check them, they should be just the right size in the end.

UPDATE! I just installed my prototype and D'OH! I had the thread going the wrong direction! Still, I muscled it on and it sealed alright. The holes were closed shut after the print and once the plastic cooled, they were hard to open with a pin. Still, It works pretty darn well! There was some water that seeped through the layers and I'm certain water will become trapped inside the head but if you print at .2 or even .1 mm layer height, print it pretty much solid and maybe dunk it in acetone for a second or two, it should be nice and watertight!

I updated the file with the correct thread and fewer/larger holes.

Spray away!

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This lean, mean, ball-peen is ready for your general clobbering needs! And while it won't drive a galvanized nail into a pressure-treated fence-post, it will dutifully bludgeon interior nails, bang tight-fitting objects together, annoy individuals with experimental jazz percussion and acceptably intimidate others when held menacingly.

UPDATE(s)!

V2 - The peen has facets now to promote better printing at smaller scales and in general.

sudo THWACK - a request from Vik, this is useful for executing "bash" commands.

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This fully 3D printable ukulele (save for bolts and strings) uses an acoustic transducer to carry the lower frequency sound created by the strings to a very thin membrane on the bottom of the body. The sound is focused and projected out of channels in the body to (hopefully) create a fuller tone with reasonable amplitude.

I am still working on the design of the head and tuners. Right now, to have a good gear ratio for the prototype, I made the gears almost comically large.

UPDATE!!
I'm refining the design of the geared tuner head but I wanted to test the tonality to see if I was getting somewhere so I quickly designed a test friction head and tuning knobs to try it out.

I have uploaded all the current parts for everyone to TEST this EXPERIMENTAL design! Have fun!

A couple of notes: I am tweaking the body design. The bridge is a little wonky and the transducer pops right off! I have to think that one over a bit. The bottom membrane is only two layers thin. It is tricky to print and even trickier to remove from the platform. BE SUPER-CAREFUL TO NOT TEAR THE MEMBRANE OFF!

The sound the first prototype makes is bright as expected but it is pretty loud. A good sign!

NOTE: This friction head is for testing only, it will no longer hold a tune after a while without shims or other "friction-enhancers." The geared tuner is the solution to this, I'm just working to make it a better, more reliable print.

Stay tuned!

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

A key hook for your car! ... or a Car-hook for your keys... I'm not sure which yet.

I modeled this to generally resemble a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado but I only spent about 4 hours on it so it is a little sloppy.

This is the low-profile version. I'm still working on a deeper one that has a compartment for charging a cell phone or putting mail or something. I even may make the lights print separate so I can rig up some LEDs!

hmmmmmmm...

ENJOY!

If you like what I do and want to help me do more, please consider supporting me on my Patreon page! patreon.com/ErikJDurwoodII Thanks!

This is probably only large enough to take a sandwich and a Capri-Sun, or a Lunchable... but hey! You can store other things in it too! I'll upload a lid without the "Lunchbox" line a bit later after my print of this completes and then the source files.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: After printing the lid, it's obvious the hinge and the lid are a bit flimsy for the task at hand so if you print the files that are up right now, do so at 100% infill for the best strength.

The Makerlele is a 3d printable Ukulele! This is very much a hypothetical project and there is no telling if it will hold a tune long enough to play a song. BUT! The fun is in the try and who knows, there may be a way to make it work! ;)

This is a worm gear string tuner. The parts are supposed to print to maximize strength and smoothness of rotation. On the stem, there is a square core which prints laterally to give it flex strength when the string is under tension.

I just made a test block for it all to mount to to experiment with the design before I incorporate it into the head of the Makerlele.

I tried to design it to be totally printed but I'm not sure how the tolerances are or the overhangs on the worm. I will print this when I get home from work!

As a gift for two friends of mine who's wedding I am officiating, I slightly modified and printed these two owls based (almost completely) on the excellent model by Cushwa.
I just added the top hat and flower head-band.
Enjoy!

Very much a work in progress! This is an odometer for filament! It should measure filament by the centimeter so you can have a real measurement for filament used! The base it attaches to slides on to the counter assembly, so you can chose different mounts for it, but the first mount is for a ToM endcap.

I'm currently printing the first set of parts to validate the design, after some tweaks, I'll upload the first working design to share and build from!

The next version will have a second resettable counter. I will also provide just the counter mechanism as a separate "thing" once I make sure everything works okay.

Is your roll of super-wide Kapton tape lounging around, taking up space? Put it to work!

This is the first design of my KaptonCaddy! Just place your roll of tape on the base, and slide in the caddy core. It snaps together and becomes a handy carrying-case for your allen wrenches, nuts, bolts and other sundries. It has two swivel drawers, holes for tools and a basin up-top for bigger stuff.

UPDATE V1.1!

The base is now part of the body. The tape roll now acts as a sleeve to hide the drawers. If you store any over-sized things in the top (like calipers) you may need to remove them to lift the roll off.

So I got this problem... Ya see, I moved the guts of my computer from its cheap, cramped chassis to an older but more spacious 4U rack-mount enclosure. My computer is happy but I'm not. WHY!?! Because it has no front panel for USB!!! Not a problem. I'll just take one of my extra headers and bring it up front through the 3.5" bay that I don't use. WAIT!!! Now it's ugly.

OH, WHAT AM I TO DO!?!... Oh yeah. That's right.

I designed this specifically to fit my spare I/O header from a LianLi mid-tower case. It has holes for FireWire, USB and Audio. I don't know if it will be of use to anybody else, but I've included the part file as well.

This is the first custom part for my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic #5801 dubbed "MiracleMaker." These are the rod end-caps for the front of my bot. As can be seen in the artist's rendering, I'll be doing a few aesthetic mods and as I learn more about this machine, some functional mods as well.

Even though these are meant to bring character to my personal machine, I figured I'll share them for others to enjoy too!

Although I am no stranger to 3D modeling, this is my very first model intended to be 3D printed. I do not own a 3D printer of any sort and I have never 3D printed anything. That being said, I tried my best to research good design practices for FDM printing and I sure hope I did all-right!

Anyhoo, this little guy is customizable by having different parts printed in different colors. Also, he was designed to be able to be personalized by the producer being able to place his or her own model in the body to add personal flair. The feet articulate as do the head, arms and claws. Everything should snap together. The spool on his back is Mr. Maker's fuel supply! Take some 1.75mm filament and wind it on the spool (you may have to warm it to be more pliant) then thread the end through the top of his head.

Now he's ready to go!

I designed this in about 10 hours with Autodesk Inventor 2012.

(Many thanks to "techknight" for the advice on re-orienting the models in ReplicatorG!)

Also, I would LOVE to know how well this prints. I tried very hard to be mindful of the vertical slopes and tolerances but this being my first design for print, I don't really know for sure. If anybody prints this, I would GREATLY appreciate it if you could explain any issues. THANKS! :)

UPDATE!
I'm working on the Mark II version as well as an Experimental Mark III body that acts as a stylish enclosure for the Gen 4 electronics guts. I don't own the parts so it's a lot of guesswork at the moment...Along with a new segmented head so it can be wired up with lights or cameras or whatever you can fit in there! (The FOO and BAR lights on the console for example!)

The Mark II I'll be uploading soon. Unfortunately not soon enough for the contest, but it was always my goal to create a neat little gizmo that was hackable and modular for ultimate customization!

More to come!

Update: Name Change! As a nod to robotic lore, this little guy will now be known as R. Maker!